A Completely New and Supposedly Educational Experience
by Meepalicious
Summary: In hindsight, I guess I hadn't known what to expect from the Pen-Pal Program. Though I don't think I expected everything I got. No matter what teachers may think; math, science, history and grammar aren't the most important things one can learn in school. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

A Completely New and (Supposedly) Educational Experience

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT I REFERENCE! I ONLY OWN MY OCS! THE REAL PEOPLE WHO INSPIRED THESE OCS OWN THEMSELVES!**

Chapter One

Eva's POV

Normally, I wasn't the kind of person who was excited about going to school, much less ninth period, but today was an exception. A few days ago, my English teacher had announced a new program that students around the world were taking part in. It was called the Pen-Pal Program and it was designed to give students the opportunity to learn about how people in other parts of the world live and learn.

Everyone in our particular school in New York had filled out an application for the program. They'd asked for our email addresses because apparently emailing our pen-pals would be much faster than sending a letter. Yet they still called it the Pen-Pal Program. Go figure. They'd also asked for our names and ages. The only reason I was excited about going to English that day was because we were getting the names and email addresses of our pen-pals.

"Hello girls." My English teacher greeted as my friend Rosie and I walked into the classroom. Ninth period English was the only class Rosie and I had together.

"Hi Mr. Aberman." Rosie stated, taking her seat. I nodded to the teacher and sat down. A few more students arrived shortly after. A guy named Frankie immediately set about annoying a girl named Jessica. I rolled my eyes as I listened to their argument.

"Mr. Aberman, Frankie's still annoying me!" Jessica whined eventually. _What else is new? _I thought. Rosie made a face and pushed her glasses back up her nose. I could tell Rosie was thinking something along the same lines as I was.

"That's because I'm still paying him!" Mr. Aberman replied. I laughed out loud. _And that's why Mr. Aberman is my favorite teacher. _I thought. Rosie all but fell out of her chair laughing.

"Good afternoon everyone!" Mr. Aberman addressed the class once ninth period officially started. "As you know, you were all signed up for the Pen-Pal Program. Well, I have the names and email addresses of your pen-pals. But, before I give them to you, I'm going to explain the program a little because the school board wants me to." Mr. Aberman told us.

"As I told you when we signed up for this, you're going to be emailing your pen-pal all year. Every so often, they want us to take a class day to discuss what you've learned from your pen-pal, whether it's about the culture of the place they come from, about life in general, or about your pen-pal personally. Keep it clean, no one wants to know anything overly specific, trust me." Mr. Aberman stated. I snorted a laugh at the last comment, as did most other people. The class nodded and a girl named Katelyn raised her hand.

"Are all of our pen-pals from the same country?" She asked.

"Yeah. All of the pen-pals in this school are from the same country." The teacher answered. _Why? _I wondered. "At the end of the year, the entire school is going to take a field trip to the country the pen-pals are from so you can all meet face to face. The trip is going to be funded by the other school. We'll talk more about the trip when it gets closer." Mr. Aberman answered. _Wow. That's really cool. What school has enough money to send everyone in this school to another country?! _I thought.

"Where are our pen-pals from? And how on earth can the other school afford to send all of us to another country?" Another kid asked.

"Our school is working with a Japanese private school called Ouran Academy for the Pen-Pal Program. Apparently, they have crap-loads of money and are going to fund our trip to Japan at the end of the year." Mr. Aberman replied. The class immediately burst into excited whispers.

_So we get to go to Japan? Awesome! _I thought. I looked towards Rosie at the other end of the room. She gave me a look that said 'We're definitely bunking together.'

"Before I hand these out, I'm supposed to give you a speech about keeping your pen-pal's personal information private and all that. But you're all honors kids so I'm hoping you all have common sense enough to know that. Keep your pen-pal's personal information private. Don't share it with anyone else. And don't drink and drive." Mr. Aberman told the class before he started handing out the papers with our pen-pal's emails on them.

My paper was one of the last ones Mr. Aberman handed out. _Hmm. Kaoru Hitachiin. Cool. We're both fifteen too. Also cool…Why does the name Hitachiin sound so familiar? _I wondered. At the end of the period, Mr. Aberman told us we were supposed to start communicating with our pen-pals by the end of the week. It was Tuesday, so I guess that was reasonable.

"Hey Eva! Who's your pen-pal?" Rosie asked as she stood by my locker while I packed up. I pushed my dirty blonde hair out of my face and looked at Rosie. She stood there, leaning against the locker next to mine with an expectant look in her golden brown eyes.

"His name is Kaoru Hitachiin." I told her. Her eyes widened and she shook her head, causing some of her wavy brown hair to fall out of its ponytail.

"Mine is named Hikaru Hitachiin." She told me. I felt my own eyes go wide. _That's so weird. What if they're related? _I thought.

"Do you think they're brothers or something?" I asked, shutting my locker, putting my backpack on and picking my flute case up off the floor where I'd left it.

"Maybe. They're fifteen like us, right? What if they're twins?" Rosie replied. I raised an eyebrow.

"That'd be kinda cool." I told her. She nodded and we walked downstairs to the main lobby of the school together.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay? I've got a cello to go get from the orchestra room and a bus to catch. Bye!" Rosie told me as she rushed down the orchestra hallway.

"Bye!" I called after her as she left. I turned towards the door and went out to a little courtyard of sorts outside the band room. I smiled as a cool late September breeze swept through the place. There was a dogwood tree in the courtyard. I sat at a picnic table under the tree and waited for my cousin.

Usually my cousin was only my ride home on Thursdays and Fridays, but seeing as my mom left for work at two and my dad was called in to be the on-set paramedic for a movie today and wouldn't be home until three thirty, I had to hitch a ride with my cousin Victoria. Both of us lived too close to the school (and too close to each other, in my opinion) and therefore didn't get the bus. And there was just no way in hell that I was crossing three major streets to get home every day.

"Hey Tori! Over here!" I called when I caught sight of my cousin.

"Hey Eva. How was your day?" she asked. I shrugged as she dug her new smart-phone out of her bag. I shrugged again as I looked at the phone. I was quite happy with my dumb-phone and didn't see what all the hype was about.

"Meh. The only thing particularly interesting was getting my pen-pal's name and stuff in English." I replied. Victoria nodded.

"Yeah. I got mine too. I can't pronounce the name though." She stated.

"Your mom's coming right?" I asked.

"Yeah. She just texted me. 'In the back of the parking lot by the gate.'" She read the text.

"I'm assuming that's our cue to move our asses." I said sarcastically.

"No shit Sherlock." Victoria replied, hurrying me to my feet.

"Fuck you, Watson." I told her as we started walking across the parking lot. She narrowed her eyes at me.

"So I hung out with Mike today. He's actually really funny." Victoria stated after a moment. I rolled my eyes internally.

"I'm assuming Tiago, Matt and all of them were there too." I responded.

"Yeah. Katie Dessel too and some of her friends." Victoria added. I resisted the urge to make a face. _So essentially all the popular people who aren't bothering me at my lunch period. _I thought.

"I don't like them." I reminded her. Victoria shrugged.

"That's because you're a loner." She said. I winced slightly and cursed myself for it.

"I hang out with people! I sit with Gianna, Naveera, Matt Fonovich and Moiz at lunch." I defended. _Even if Naveera and Moiz only have lunch every other day. _I thought.

"The other loners." Victoria insisted. I narrowed my eyes down at her, reminded of how completely opposite we looked and acted.

Victoria was short(er than me), standing only about 5'2 with tan-ish skin. She had curly hair that was naturally dark brown, but she dyed it to a lighter brown that was almost mousy and dyed the ends red and her eyes were dark brown. In pretty stark contrast, I stood about 5'6, and had dirty blonde hair that was wavy and curled a little at the ends. And I'm pretty sure my mom would kill me if I dyed it. My eyes were a dark-ish forest green color and Victoria liked to tease me about how fair (pasty, according to her) my skin was.

"Whatever." I told her as we found my aunt's black minivan and got in. I sat in one of the bucket seats and Victoria rode shotgun.

"Hi mom." Victoria said, buckling her seatbelt after receiving a pointed look from her mom.

"Hi Titi Rocky." I smiled. My dad's side of the family was a mix of German/Austrian/Hungarian and Spanish, so we used Spanish words a lot. We called my grandmother, who had moved from Spain to Puerto Rico, them to Long Island from there, Abuela, my dad's sisters Titi and Titi Robin's husband Tio. Uncle Pete wasn't referred to as Tio and neither was my dad. My mom chose to be called Titi because her Italian family used the word as well. And because being referred to as 'Aunt Donna' made the hair on the back of my mom's neck stand up.

"Hey girls. How was school?" Titi Rocky asked as we pulled away.

Victoria immediately launched into all kinds of stories about who did what when and what math test she completely aced and how her teacher thought she was the smartest person in the class. In case it isn't obvious, my cousin likes to brag (a lot) and is constantly trying to get in with the 'In Crowd'. She didn't even have a whole lot to brag about. So she was sort of popular and got good grades in all of her Regents level classes. So? I was in Honors classes for every subject except for math and AP European History and you didn't see me flaunting it.

Although, according to Victoria and everyone else at school, I was a loner or a nerd. That's only because I don't talk to them seeing as none of them have much more intelligence than a squirrel (no offense to squirrels). I don't really care what the other kids at school think of me, though it pisses me off when they make fun of me and my friends. Sometimes though, it really hurts when the insults come from my cousin. I hope that makes sense.

"How did your AP test today go?" Titi Rocky asked me, cutting off one of Victoria's stories about the kids at her lunch table. I made a face.

"It was pretty hard, but I think I did well." I replied. Titi Rocky nodded and took her sunglasses of her head and put them on, causing her short black hair to fall into her face.

"Good. How's karate going? Do you like the adult class?" she continued. _It's Jiu Jitsu._ I corrected mentally.

"Good. I like the adult class better. It's more challenging to work with the adults and we do more advanced techniques. Plus the fact that I'm too old for the kids' classes. But I still go to the kids' class on Saturday mornings to help out." I replied, smiling slightly.

"Do you know when you're testing for your junior black belt or whatever that is?" Victoria asked, evidently having gotten over being cut off.

"No. And technically there's no guarantee I'll test for junior black belt. Sensei Jeff could still decide to have me test for the adult blue belt instead." I reminded her.

"Really Eva? Do you really think he's going to do that?" Titi Rocky asked.

"He could." I replied. My aunt gave me a look that said she didn't think so. I shrugged and we pulled up to my house. I leaned into the front and kissed my aunt and my cousin on their foreheads before heading inside.

Once inside, I unpacked my lunch box seeing as I refused to eat the school's lunches. I was half convinced they were radioactive. After that I went upstairs to my room and did homework. I got home at 2:30 and finished homework at around 3:15.

"I'm home!" my younger brother yelled as he walked in less than thirty seconds after I finished my homework.

"I'm upstairs! Did you lock the door?" I called back. I grabbed my book, my iPod, my notebook and my sketchbook and went downstairs into the kitchen.

"Yeah. When's dad getting home?" My brother, Ryan, asked.

"Soon. How was school?" I replied. Ryan shrugged. "That good, huh?" I smirked. Ryan narrowed his brown eyes at me and I reached up to ruffle his thick dark brown hair. He swatted my hands away.

I went downstairs, put my stuff on the coffee table, curled up on the couch and continued reading my book. A while later, after finishing his homework, Ryan came down and started playing video games on one of the two computers we had. I rolled my eyes. Dad walked in the door about five minutes after that.

"Hi! Meep!" I called up the stairs.

"Hey, Meeps!" My dad responded. I smiled. After seeing the episode of 'Phineas and Ferb' with the cute little pink alien who could only say 'Meep!' I'd begun to use the word. Slowly, it had become a household trend for everyone except my mom. And my dad had started calling me 'Meep'.

"Hey." My brother said belatedly, absorbed in his video game.

My dad came downstairs a few minutes later and sat down on the couch. Our couch had a turning point in it where it came away from the wall and the two end seats were recliners. I was curled up in the turn and my dad had sat in the recliner away from the wall.

"Any ideas for dinner?" My dad asked, running a hand through his graying black hair. My brother shook his head and muttered something that sounded like 'No clue'. I shrugged.

"Do we have any more sauce made?" I asked. My mom, being fully Italian, made her own sauce. We rarely used store sauce and even then it was from the Italian place about five minutes away. It was just so much better homemade.

"No." Dad replied. _Damn. _I thought.

"What about burgers?" I asked.

"We have those. Pickles too, if you want." Dad said smirking. I looked my dad in his green eyes that were so like mine and raised an eyebrow. "Right. Pickles." He laughed.

We sat down to dinner of cheeseburgers, waffle fries, pickles and sliced up veggies on the side at around 5:30. I had fries, a pickle and some of the tomatoes and sliced up cucumbers along with my burger, as did Dad. Ryan avoided the veggies like the plague seeing as we were out of carrots, the only vegetable he eats other than lettuce. After dinner, I took a shower and started a drawing of an owl. At 8:00, NCIS was on and everyone watched.

**Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm Meepalicious and this is my first fanfiction for Ouran High School Host Club! I came up with this idea a while ago, and I haven't seen any others in which the OCs are pen-pals of the Hosts. Not to offend anyone, but I find this idea slightly more plausible than the ones in which American students are accepted (usually on scholarships) to Ouran and then travel across the globe to attend. But hey, that's just me. Anyway! READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! **


	2. Chapter 2

A Completely New and Supposedly Educational Experience

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT I REFERENCE! I ONLY OWN MY OCS! WHATEVER PEOPLE INSPIRED THE OCS OWN THEMSELVES!**

Chapter Two

Eva's POV

I checked my email after getting ready for school a few days later. I had some time to kill before my mom drove me to school and I was bored. I sat on my bed with my iPod and kicked off the black flats I was wearing with a black pair of skinny jeans and a sort of peasant top with sleeves to my elbows that was burgundy colored. There was only one email and it was from my pen-pal. My eyes widened and I opened it, a bit excited to _finally _start talking to my pen-pal.

'Hi there Eva! I'm Kaoru Hitachiin, but I'm pretty sure the paper that gave you me email told you that. Anyway, I'm not sure how to start this, that's why I waited so long… So I'll just ask some questions, okay? You're from the United States, right? Are you a commoner? Do you have any siblings? How many? Do you speak any languages besides English? I'm sorry if I scared you, please write back to me soon, okay?' the email read. I read it a few times before replying. This Kaoru guy seemed nice enough. Already he didn't seem like the moronic guys at my school.

'Hi Kaoru! By the way, yes, the paper that gave me your email also told me your name. That's a little weird when you think about it, isn't it? It's okay. Emailing a random person for school, even if they are your age, is weird. Yes, I'm from the United States of America. The thing told me you're from Japan. Is that right? What do you mean by commoner? I have one younger brother who is twelve. His name is Ryan. Do you have any siblings? Estoy aprendiendo español. Google Translate it. What other languages do you speak, besides English and Japanese? What do you like to do outside school?' I emailed back. I put my iPod back on my desk.

"Come on, Eva! Time to go!" My mom called up the stairs. I pushed my hair out of my face and put my shoes back on.

"Okay I'm coming!" I called as I rushed down the stairs and pulled on a light jacket. I got into the back seat of my mom's burgundy-ish colored Santa Fe and put my backpack in my lap and my flute case next to me.

"Ready?" My mom asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror. My mom had shoulder length, dark brown hair, brown eyes and a slightly dark complexion. Yeah, I was the oddball of the family with my light skin and dirty blonde hair. My brother was almost a doppelganger of my mom's brother, Uncle Dean, and my dad's hair was dark. It had me going 'WTF?' on more than one occasion.

"Yeah. I had an email from my pen-pal. I told you about the Pen-Pal Program, right?" I told my mom. She nodded.

"Yes. I had to sign a permission slip for it, remember? Who's your pen-pal?" she asked. A minute or so later we pulled up to Victoria's house. We drove my cousin to school every morning and Titi Rocky drove me home when my mom couldn't get out of work before the bell ended ninth period at 2:06.

"His name is Kaoru. He lives in Japan and goes to a private school. I think he's rich because he asked if I was a 'commoner'." I replied, putting air quotes around 'commoner'. My mom chuckled and rolled her eyes. Victoria got into the car just after that and we left.

"Bye Tori!" I called to my cousin as we set off down different hallways at school. She sent me a glare. _Right…Once we're in school we're apparently not supposed to be cousins unless Victoria tells someone or a teacher asks when I have to get stuff for her. Although, somehow the entire school knows. _I thought, a bit harshly.

Though, that was essentially it. Victoria told nearly everyone and then had the nerve to get annoyed with me when I told one of my friends who asked why random people were talking to me. I guess it wasn't all bad; _sometimes_ she would stick up for me when people would talk shit about me behind my back. But then again there were times I didn't really want to be associated with her.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I walked over to my locker. According to the clock on the wall, it was 7:20 AM. The five minute warning bell didn't ring until 7:29 and first period didn't start until 7:35. My locker was pretty close to the band room, band was my first period class and I had a total of fifteen minutes to spare.

I wove through the crowd of people to my locker and got all the stuff I would need until I came back before fourth period lunch. I waved to Rosie, whose locker was down the hall and on the other side of the hallway. She waved back.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish up at my locker in peace, seeing as the guy who had the locker next to mine decided to show up with all of his annoying friends. I found myself being pushed and yelled at to move. My eye twitched.

"Move it nerd!" Someone yelled over the commotion of the hallway.

One would think that after having to endure teenage boy stupidity and arrogance every day, I'd learn to ignore it. But no, that comment pissed me off more than it usually did. I glanced at Rosie, who was finishing up at her locker and staring at me in disbelief. Before I could motion for her not to, she was at my side and tapping the guy, who happened to be Victoria's friend Joe, on the shoulder.

"What do you want, you freakin' loser?" he asked. Rosie glared at him over the tops of her glasses, completely undaunted by the fact that this guy towered over her. And Rosie was my height, which isn't all that short.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but hear you yelling at my friend just now." Rosie stated.

"Yeah, and?" Joe asked. I narrowed my eyes and gave Joe my best death glare, which I've been told is pretty scary.

"Her locker just so happens to be right here, next to your friend Mike's." Rosie continued. Joe looked unimpressed. "She has the right to be standing where she is, because she was getting something out of her locker. Yours isn't even in this hallway!" Rosie raised her voice slightly.

"The nerd was in my way." Joe shrugged. I bit my lip and resisted the urge to slap him across the face, and possibly several other much more painful things.

"And? What makes you so much better than her that you think you can push her around like that? What makes you so damn special, you arrogant son of a bitch?!" Rosie shouted at him.

I bit back a smirk. Yeah, maybe Rosie was over-reacting slightly, but these guys pick on her too and in a weird sort of way, watching them get chewed out was a little bit fun. Alright, it was a lot a bit fun.

"Whatever. Just don't get in my way, geek squad." Joe spat and he, Mike, James and that whole group walked off. Once they were gone, I laughed loudly.

"Nice. Way to go Rosie." I told my friend. Rosie shrugged.

"Don't tell me they didn't deserve it." Rosie replied.

"They did. Every once in a while they need to be taken down a peg." I shrugged.

"I'm getting real sick of this bullshit." Rosie told me. I nodded.

"I know. So am I. For a school that preaches anti-bullying and all that, they're doing one hell of a job enforcing it." I commented sarcastically. Rosie laughed humorlessly.

"Yeah really." She replied. We walked down the hallway together, back into the main lobby where I'd come in and then Rosie went upstairs and I went down another hallway to band.

I was the first one of my lunch group friends to get to the cafeteria that day. That wasn't out of the ordinary; it was either me or Matt who got there first. I went to our out-of-the-way corner table with attached chairs that swiveled and sat down, unpacking my lunch. Matt came in a few minutes later.

"Hey Fon." I greeted. Gianna and I called him Fon(-Fon), or Fonovich, or occasionally Fon-Fon the Great, seeing as his last name was Fonovich and he gave everyone at our table weird nicknames.

"Hey Pizzazz Master. What's up?" Matt asked, sitting down across from me and putting his enormous, over-packed backpack on the floor next to him. I rolled my eyes internally.

"Same shit, different day." I replied. Matt nodded and I took a bite out of my sandwich.

"Yeah. Same here." Matt said. Gianna showed up a few minutes later and came to sit next to me. She struggled with her messenger bag for a moment, trying to get it off and not fall over or push herself even further into the corner.

"You wanna switch seats?" I asked, watching her.

"Nah. I'm good." Gianna replied, moving her hair wavy dark brown, shoulder length hair out of her face. I nodded and dug a folder out of my pile of stuff on the floor.

"I brought the stuff." I told Gianna, holding up the folder. She looked at it for a moment, then laughed.

"So did I." She replied, holding up another folder. I grinned and we spread out the contents of the folder on the table between us. The contents of the folder were old drawings and half-assed plans for a graphic novel we'd started planning in the sixth grade.

"I remember this! This was the 'Mister Screw-Up' we did that one day at art! Haha!" Gianna laughed, holding up the drawing in question. I nodded and we looked at it. It was a half-assed pencil drawing of a million different things; the usual product of our boredom and our habit of adding on to each other's stupid ideas. Some of the million things included random meme references, a short comic with a pair of characters we made up, and a drawing of a very annoyed Legolas on the bottom with the words 'They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!' scrawled in capital letters next to him, courtesy of me.

"None of this makes any sense to me!" Matt stated, gesturing wildly to the drawings and making weird faces with wide blue-grey eyes. Gianna and I laughed.

"You didn't know us back then, Fon-Fon." Gianna explained.

"Consider yourself lucky. We were even more insane than we are now." I added. Gianna nodded.

"I can't believe this is what I taught you to draw. It was so bad!" Gianna exclaimed, looking at one of my old(er than I'd care to admit) fur-sona drawings.

"They've gotten better." I assured her.

"I know but still!" she laughed. I rolled my eyes and joined my friend's laughter.

The whole lunch period was spent talking about our graphic novel idea, improving our old ideas, trashing some of the really out-there ones, and generally confusing poor Matt, who still didn't have much of a clue as to what we were talking about. Eventually we ended up explaining it to him, then threatening him with being locked in a room with 'It's A Small World After All' on loop for twenty-four hours straight should he tell anyone.

"Hey, what are you doing next Friday?" Gianna asked towards the end of the period.

"Dude! Today's Friday! That's a whole week from now, I don't know!" I exclaimed, laughing. "Nothing as far as I know. Wanna hang out?" I asked.

"Yeah." Gianna replied. Just then the bell rang, ending lunch. "Bye!" she called over the crowd as we left.

Ninth period couldn't come fast enough. I rushed to class and Rosie came over to sit on the radiator next to my desk. I got out all the stuff I needed for English and turned to my friend.

"What's up?" I asked. Rosie shrugged.

"Not much. Hikaru emailed me finally, the usual questions you ask when you first meet someone. Do you have any idea what a 'commoner' is?" Rosie responded. I shook my head.

"Nope. But Kaoru asked if I was one. I'm thinking that since they go to private school, maybe they're rich or something and refer to middle class people as 'commoners'. But I asked what he meant anyway." I told Rosie the theory I had come up with. Rosie nodded.

"However annoying and stuck up that is, it makes sense." Rosie replied. I nodded. "Hey, is the thing at your house later still going on?" she asked.

"Yeah. Julianna said she'd bring the clothes and all we had to do was show up and look pretty." I replied. My friend Julianna Petrucelli joined her school's fashion club at the beginning of this year as a senior. I knew her through the art class she was in with Gianna and me. Somehow, Rosie and I had become her favorite subjects for her fashion and photography stuff.

"Cool. Three thirty, right?" Rosie asked. I nodded and the bell to start ninth period rang.

**Author's Note: I know we've got lots of dialogue and school interactions so far, but the main focus of the story is the characters develop and the effects of life experiences on them. So there will be a little more emotional focus, especially once Hikaru and Kaoru become more prominent characters. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! **


	3. Chapter 3

A Completely New and Supposedly Educational Experience

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club or anything else that I reference! I only own my OCs! **

Chapter Three

Eva's POV

After ninth period I packed up and thanked my lucky stars it was Friday. My mom doesn't work on Fridays, so she was able to drive me home; which was good for me seeing as I really did not want to put up with my cousin that day. I also thanked my lucky stars that I had no homework. My Geometry class had been cancelled that day, so I'd gone to the library and done all of my homework.

"Hey mom!" I smiled as I climbed into the passenger seat of the car.

"Hey, honey." My mom replied. "How was your day?" she asked.

"Pretty good. Geometry was cancelled, so I did all my homework that period." I told her. She nodded. There was another email from Kaoru in my inbox when I checked it when I got home.

'Yeah. I guess it's kinda weird when you think about it, but whatever. What's it like in the U.S.? Yeah, I'm from Japan. Hmm. I find that most commoners don't know that we call them commoners. Not to brag or anything, seriously, but my family's pretty rich and I learned to call middle class people commoners. I hope that doesn't offend you too much. That's cool. What's your younger brother like? I have a twin brother. His name is Hikaru. So you're learning Spanish? That's pretty cool. Yes, I actually went and Google translated that. J'apprends français. Outside school, I'm in Ouran High School's Host Club. I like sports too, though. And music. And playing pranks on people with Hikaru sometimes.' The email read. Immediately, I went to Google Translate. I was pretty sure the foreign language was French. As it turns out, it was. And evidently, Kaoru was learning French.

'I'm not sure how to answer that question. I live about an hour outside New York City, in a small town you've probably never heard of. It gets pretty noisy sometimes. Nothing really goes on. And contrary to popular belief, I haven't even seen a whole lot of the tourist attractions in Manhattan. But yes, we have the best pizza. Period. My friend's uncle once said 'If you can't see the Empire State Building, the pizza sucks!' What's Japan like? I had a feeling that's what a 'commoner' was. When you put it that way, yes I am a commoner. Not to offend, but doesn't that seem pretty obnoxious? My younger brother is…Hmm. He's a bit obsessive about things he really likes. His current obsession is anything Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth and anything to do with the movie Rio, but that's partially my fault for introducing him to the Lord of the Rings books, all of which I have read. And then some. My brother has been actually diagnosed with Asperger's and he has to take meds for it. He gets mad pretty easily and doesn't perceive things the way most people do. There's no grey area for him, it's black or white, yes or no, and everything has to be a certain way or he gets upset. But he's a good kid and as much of a pain in my ass he is, I love him. Your brother's name is Hikaru? This is going to sound really weird but my friend Rosie is his pen-pal for this school thing. Yes, my dad's family is Spanish on my grandmother's side. My grandpa's side is German/Austrian/Hungarian. My grandmother (abuela!) has been teaching my cousins and I bits and pieces of Spanish since we could talk. She moved to the U.S. from Spain as a child so…yeah. French huh? I'm really, really bad at French, so kudos to you! I play sports sometimes too, but not for my school teams. I can play volleyball, softball, basketball but I suck at it and some soccer because my cousin plays and taught me. I'm in my school's marching band as one of about a million flute players. I'm also in a local archery league; I won fourth place out of thirty in the last tournament. I have a brown belt in Jiu Jitsu. I listen to a lot of music and sometimes I'll pull a prank or two, usually with Rosie or my friend Gianna. And usually on my brother. What's a Host Club?' I sent back.

After sending the email, I put my iPod in my pocket. I then went downstairs into the kitchen and got out some snacks for when Rosie and Julianna got here. I got a bowl of pretzels and the tub of cream cheese because we liked to dip pretzels in it, a bowl of Tostitos and some salsa and put them on the small bar counter in the kitchen.

Knowing that Julianna would probably want to do something strange with my hair, I grabbed my brush and brushed out my hair. A moment later the doorbell rang and Rosie walked in.

"Hello? Eva, where are you?" she called.

"Bathroom!" I called back. Rosie then walked into the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe. "Hey." I smiled at my friend.

"What's up? Where's the tug-munch that is your brother?" Rosie asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Inside a videogame. Mom's doing bills and stuff on the other computer and dad's not home yet." I told her. I put my hairbrush away and we sat at the kitchen with our snacks.

"Who was at the door?" My mom called up the stairs a moment later.

"Me! Julianna's on her way." Rosie called. My mom came up the stairs and sat with us.

"Hey Rosie. It's been a while. How have you been?" My mom asked.

"Good, I guess. People are still stupid and geometry's still hard. But otherwise I'm good." Rosie replied. My mom snorted a laugh. Soon the doorbell rang again and my mom got up to get it.

"Hi Mrs. Kochie!" Julianna's voice sounded from the door. There was also the crinkling sound of a million shopping bags and the dull thud of Julianna's camera as it thumped around her neck.

"Julianna. Mrs. Kochie is my mother-in-law. Call me Donna." My mom replied, smiling slightly. I smirked and rolled my eyes. Julianna had only been to my house a few times and still tried to be formal with my parents. As if there was anything formal or proper about my family.

"Hi Julianna!" Rosie and I called in unison. The three of us snacked for a little bit before Julianna pulled Rosie and me to our feet. We both raised an eyebrow at the 5'4 foot tall Italian as she ushered us upstairs.

"What's up guys? So I'm having you model some homecoming/fall stuff today because the assignment was dresses. Okay?" Julianna asked, rifling through her bags.

"Cool. Nothing's really new. Same shit, different day." Rosie stated.

"We got our pen-pals the other day. Did you?" I asked. Julianna's school was also participating in the Pen-Pal Program.

"Nice! Yeah, I did. My pen-pal lives in Italy. Funny story actually. You know my cousins who live in Italy? One of them is my pen-pal. Anna-Maria Petrucelli. One would think the schools would check these things. I mean, we have the same last name for crying out loud! Also, my school is funding a trip for the pen-pals to visit us in June." She stated. Rosie and I burst out laughing.

"Damn you and your private schools. What…What the hell are the odds of your pen-pal being your cousin?" I asked between fits of laughter.

"I don't know! But we speak Italian to each other over email. What about your pen-pals?" Julianna asked, handing Rosie a knee-length peach-colored dress with lace designs and elbow length sleeves. She also handed Rosie a thin brown belt and matching ankle boots. Rosie looked over the dress before starting to change.

"Our pen-pals are Japanese. They go to Ouran Academy, which is apparently some Japanese private school. They're funding our trip to Japan in June." I stated. Julianna nodded.

"That's really cool. I'm seriously jealous." She told us, giving me a knee-length olive green dress and a light colored denim jacket. I changed into the outfit, complete with black leather boots.

"Better yet, our pen-pals are twins." Rosie commented. Julianna gave us a look that said 'Are you serious?' We both nodded.

"That reminds me! Does the name Hitachiin ring any bells to you?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. Julianna blinked owlishly as if trying to place the name. Suddenly her hazel eyes widened and her mouth fell open slightly.

"Yes! Yes, I know that name! Yuhuza Hitachiin is a big-name Japanese fashion designer. Why do you ask?" Julianna replied. Rosie and I exchanged a look and I resisted the urge to face-palm. _Obviously that's how Hikaru and Kaoru's family is rich. _I thought.

"Do you want to know the names of our pen-pals?" Rosie asked. Julianna nodded furiously, her black curls bouncing as she did.

"Their names are Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin." I told her. Julianna blinked again and her expression was completely blank.

"Your pen-pals are the children of a famous Japanese fashion designer. What. The. Hell?" Julianna stated. Rosie and I shrugged. "Right. Anyway! We need to do something with your hair." Julianna changed the subject.

"What are we going to do?" Rosie asked. Julianna shrugged and pushed Rosie into my purple spinny office chair.

"I saw this beautiful braid thing in a picture the other day, but I don't know how to do it." Julianna muttered, digging out a brush, a brand new package of bobby pins and a bag full of clear rubber band hair-ties.

"What did it look like?" I asked, taking the brush from her.

"It was a Dutch braid, I think. But it went all the way around the girl's head and half of her hair was still down. But I suck at braids." Julianna stated. I rolled my eyes.

"Let Eva do it. I'd rather not have my hair ripped out." Rosie commented. Julianna made a face at Rosie and I laughed, starting to brush her hair.

I sectioned out half of it, tied the bottom in a low ponytail so it would be out of the way and started braiding. Like Julianna described, I made a Dutch braid with the top half of Rosie's hair that went all the way around her head. Then I wrapped the braid over the top of Rosie's head and pinned it under the beginning of the braid on the other side.

"That's it!" Julianna exclaimed when I was done. I laughed and Rosie felt around her head curiously, then got up and opened my closet to look in the full length mirror hanging on the inside of the door.

"I like it." Rosie stated.

"Now what are we doing with your hair, Eva?" Julianna asked. I shrugged and Rosie came over and started playing with said hair.

"Do you realize how much I love your hair? You have great hair. It's all dirty blonde and highlighted and crap. And it's all natural. You lucky bitch!" Rosie stated, taking the brush off the desk, nudging me down into the chair and brushing my hair.

Julianna fussed with my hair for a while; brushing, (attempted) braiding, fluffing and doing all sorts of other weird things with it. Rosie just watched with raised eyebrows. I gave Julianna a look. She threw her hands up and dropped the half-assed braid she was doing.

"Fix this." She told me. I laughed and asked her to hold up a mirror so I could see. I parted my hair on the side; French braided down the side with more hair and, pulling the rest of it over the same shoulder, braided all of it into one braid.

Once that was finished, Julianna took us outside. It was about four-thirty at that point and the sun was starting to go down, casting a golden glow on everything. Julianna took a bunch of shots of Rosie first, putting her under the tree in my backyard, having her pose and grabbing a chair from the garage for her to sit on. She took several pictures of me too with different poses and whatnot, then she took a few of Rosie and I together. Most of those were goof pictures though.

"Alright. I'll see you at art on Tuesday and you next week because somehow our moms know each other." Julianna told us, nodding first to me, then to Rosie once we were changed and Julianna's stuff was packed up. We hung out for a while and it was almost six when she left and Rosie left, the latter having taken up Julianna's offer of a ride home.

My dad got home soon after my friends left. I told him how the photo-shoot went when he asked, he talked to my mom about financial stuff, we miraculously managed to drag Ryan away from the computer screen and decided to order pizza for dinner.

"How was school?" My mom asked at dinner.

"Good." Ryan and I replied in unison.

"What did you do?" Dad asked.

"Boring stuff." Ryan replied. Dad rolled his eyes.

"Geometry got cancelled today, so I went to the library and did all my homework. I'm free for the weekend." I stated, doing a mini victory dance at the mention of a homework free weekend.

"Nice!" Dad smiled and leaned over to high-five me.

"How did your English quiz go, Ryan?" My mom asked. All eyes turned expectantly to my brother. Ryan fidgeted nervously.

"Horrible. I didn't know how to start the critical lens the teacher gave us." Ryan mumbled.

"So what did you write?" Mom asked.

"I didn't write anything! I didn't know how to start!" Ryan exclaimed. I bit my lip.

"You've got to write something. It's a quiz grade, Ryan. Ask the teacher for help if you need it." Dad commented.

"I know!" Ryan replied.

"Do you need extra help? When does Mrs. Cassidy offer extra help?" My mom asked.

"I-I don't know! Why am I in the honors class anyway? I suck at English." Ryan muttered.

"You don't suck. If you have trouble, you have to tell the teacher and ask for help. They're there to help you, Ryan." My mom responded.

"Critical lens essays are hard. Everyone has trouble with them at first." I added, remembering my seventh grade year and how many class periods I'd sat and stared at a critical lens essay, figuring out what to say.

After dinner, we agreed to watch a movie since it was Friday. Once we cleaned up everything and I changed into pajamas, we put in 'The Avengers'. Marvel superhero movies were a favorite in my house; mostly for the action, partially because Robert Downey Jr. was hilarious, and partially because my mom classified Thor as 'eye-candy'.

**Author's Note: So uh, yeah! Enter Julianna Petrucelli; the photographer. And in case anyone's wondering, my mom has actually used the phrase 'eye-candy' to describe Chris Hemsworth as Thor. But seriously though, can you say that she's wrong? …...Anyway! I'm planning on part of the next chapter being from Kaoru's POV. What do you think? READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! **


	4. Chapter 4

A Completely New and Supposedly Educational Experience

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club or anything else that I reference! I only own my OCs! **

Chapter Four

Kaoru's POV

_Ugh. I hate Mondays. What time is class over? _I wondered, listening to the teacher drone on and on. I glanced over at the clock. Eight thirty. Class wouldn't be over for another half-hour. And then, of course, there were the rest of my classes. _Ugh. _I thought.

I took out my phone and decided to check my email for any messages from Eva. She seemed pretty nice and she reminded me a bit of Haruhi. There was one email. I'd gotten it on Saturday morning. _Oh no. _I thought. I hadn't checked my email over the weekend.

"Kaoru? What's wrong?" Hikaru whispered, likely seeing the look of panic on my face.

"I didn't check my email all weekend. I got a message from my pen-pal on Saturday that I haven't gotten back to yet." I replied. Hikaru shrugged.

"So reply now. It's not like we're doing anything important." He said. I nodded and opened up the email.

'I'm not sure how to answer that question. I live about an hour outside New York City, in a small town you've probably never heard of. It gets pretty noisy sometimes. Nothing really goes on. And contrary to popular belief, I haven't even seen a whole lot of the tourist attractions in Manhattan. But yes, we have the best pizza. Period. My friend's uncle once said 'If you can't see the Empire State Building, the pizza sucks!' What's Japan like? I had a feeling that's what a 'commoner' was. When you put it that way, yes I am a commoner. Not to offend, but doesn't that seem pretty obnoxious? My younger brother is…Hmm. He's a bit obsessive about things he really likes. His current obsession is anything Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth and anything to do with the movie Rio, but that's partially my fault for introducing him to the Lord of the Rings books, all of which I have read. And then some. My brother has been actually diagnosed with Asperger's and he has to take meds for it. He gets mad pretty easily and doesn't perceive things the way most people do. There's no grey area for him, it's black or white, yes or no, and everything has to be a certain way or he gets upset. But he's a good kid and as much of a pain in my ass he is, I love him. Your brother's name is Hikaru? This is going to sound really weird but my friend Rosie is his pen-pal for this school thing. Yes, my dad's family is Spanish on my grandmother's side. My grandpa's side is German/Austrian/Hungarian. My grandmother (abuela!) has been teaching my cousins and I bits and pieces of Spanish since we could talk. She moved to the U.S. from Spain as a child so…yeah. French huh? I'm really, really bad at French, so kudos to you! I play sports sometimes too, but not for my school teams. I can play volleyball, softball, basketball but I suck at it and some soccer because my cousin plays and taught me. I'm in my school's marching band as one of about a million flute players. I'm also in a local archery league; I won fourth place out of thirty in the last tournament. I have a brown belt in Jiu Jitsu. I listen to a lot of music and sometimes I'll pull a prank or two, usually with Rosie or my friend Gianna. And usually on my brother. What's a Host Club?' It read.

_Wow. She can write a lot. _I noted as I read. Hikaru looked over my shoulder. I re-read the part of the email where Eva had mentioned her friend Rosie. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Hikaru.

"Hikaru, what's your pen-pal's name?" I asked.

"Rosie Snyder. Why?" he responded, tilting his head slightly to the side.

"Apparently, our pen-pals know each other and are friends." I told him.

"What? No way!" Hikaru exclaimed, reading the email. "Huh. So it seems they are. How odd." He mused. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and started to type a response.

_What's a Host Club? Hmm. _Eva's question echoed in my mind. _How to answer that. _I wondered. I leaned over and poked Haruhi's shoulder. She turned sharply and looked at me.

"What is it Kaoru? I'm trying to pay attention to class." She whispered.

"How would you describe the Host Club to another commoner?" I asked her. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"I'd say it's a club where you all sit around and entertain girls after school and occasionally sponsor parties. Why?" Haruhi answered. I nodded slowly.

"My pen-pal is a commoner and she wanted to know what a host club was." I told her. Haruhi nodded a little and turned back to the front. I typed out an answer and sent the email to Eva. _I hope that helped. _I thought, pondering my answer to the host club question.

*Eva's POV*

It was seven something Sunday night before I got another email from Kaoru. He hadn't responded to the email I sent on Friday. I grabbed my iPod off the coffee table in my living room and read.

'I'm so sorry I didn't respond sooner! I hadn't checked my email over the weekend, so I'm writing this at 8:30 ish during class. My next question was actually going to be if you've seen or done the New York City attractions and stuff. I guess I already have my answer though. I guess I could say that Japan is kinda similar to where you live. Nothing really happens. I guess when I think about it, the whole 'commoner' thing does seem a_ little_ obnoxious. Your brother seems like a pretty good kid. I'm sorry if I seem nosy, but do you guys get along well? I told Hikaru that you know his pen-pal. He didn't believe me at first, so he read the email. I think it's a little odd that it turned out like that. He sort of agrees. That's really interesting. I'm entirely Japanese in terms of ethnicity. Are you good at the sports you do? Archery and Jiu Jitsu seem to be your favorites though. Am I right? Oh, I have some friends that practice martial arts. Their names are Mitsukuni Haninozuka and Takashi Morinozuka, but we just call them Honey-Senpai and Mori-Senpai. What kind of music do you like? Oh, I asked my friend Haruhi to describe the Host Club. She's a commoner too, so I thought you'd be able to identify more with her description. She says it's an after school club where the host Club members entertain the young ladies of our school. We usually talk; eat food and sometimes the Boss feels like sponsoring a party, so we throw parties too. Sometimes we also cosplay. If you want to know, the members of the host Club are Tamaki Suoh, the Boss and the Princely Type, Kyoya Ootori the Cool Type, Honey the boy Lolita, Mori the Strong Silent Type and Hikaru and I the Mischievous Type.'

I raised an eyebrow at the screen. _They have an entire club where these guys hanging out snacking with the girls based on what kind of guys they're interested in? That's…kinda weird but also kinda cool. _I thought.

'It's okay, Kaoru! I get it. Based on the time you gave me, I figured that there's a thirteen hour time difference between us. You sent your email at 8:30 or so on Monday morning. I got it a few minutes later, at 7:30 ish on Sunday night. Yeah, I don't usually have time to go into Manhattan. Besides, the place is really an overcrowded mess. I'm not going to talk about the 'commoner' thing anymore…My brother is a pretty good kid. Usually we get along well enough. We fight sometimes and sometimes he's just a pain in the ass. But he's my brother. It's usually my cousins I don't get along with… Haha! I told Rosie too. It seems pretty odd when you look at it, but whatever. Yeah, I have a pretty diverse ethnic background. I actually am sort of good at softball and volleyball. But yes, you're right and Jiu Jitsu and archery are my favorite sports. I'm hoping to be going for my junior black-belt somewhere in the semi-near future. Hmm. I like a lot of music. Usually I just listen to whatever's on my radio station and look up songs I happen to like. But my favorite bands are Bon Jovi, Gaslight Anthem and Imagine Dragons. I like most Taylor Swift songs and some by Nickelback. What about you?'

I sent the email to Kaoru and turned off my iPod. It was just in time too. 'Once Upon A Time' was about to start and everyone had gathered in my living room to watch.

~~~~~meep~~~~~meep~~~~~meep~~~~~

It rained torrentially for the entirety of the next day. We'd been forced to stay inside for band first period and it was still pouring as I walked to my ninth period class. I walked into the classroom only to notice that it was empty.

_Hmm. That's weird. Maybe Mr. Aberman's just late? _I thought. I shrugged and sat down at my desk to wait.

"Where's Mr. Aberman?" Rosie asked when she arrived a few minutes later. I shrugged. "Do we have a sub?" she continued.

"Does it look like I know?" I replied. Rosie sat down next to me. Within the next few minutes the rest of the class showed up.

"Is class cancelled? Are we off this period?" A kid named Brandon asked.

"Wouldn't there be a note on the door if class was cancelled?" Katie responded.

"If no one shows up in the next five minutes, we're off and we can go." A girl named Madison pointed out as the bell rang. I looked through my planner for the school rules. _Yep. It's right there in writing. Sweet! _I thought

"Seriously?" Nick asked.

"Yeah. It's in the planners. If a teacher or a sub doesn't show up and we're alone in here for five minutes, we get the period off and it's not marked as a cut. " I told him, holding my planner up.

"That's seriously awesome." Brandon stated. We promptly shut the door, turned off the lights and sat quietly so passersby would think the room was empty.

"Well, I don't know about you people, but I'm going home. See ya!" Laura said when the five minutes were up, giving everyone a peace sign and a duck face before bolting out of the room. I face-palmed.

"What are you going to do?" Rosie asked me as we wandered towards my locker.

"I don't know. The library's closed today so I think I'm just going to text my aunt and go home." I replied. Rosie whacked my shoulder and made a face at me. "What?" I laughed.

"Bitch. I have to stay after for Model Congress!" Rosie exclaimed. Our school's debate club was called Model Congress.

"Don't complain! You guys are going to freakin' Europe over the February break." I reminded her. The Model Congress was taking a field trip to Greece and Italy over the break; the cities of Athens, Rome and Florence. Rosie pulled a face and we both laughed.

"Right. I'm going to go now. Bye!" I called to Rosie as I headed for the back door that lead out into the courtyard.

I leaned against the wall, my backpack and flute case on the ground at my feet. I watched the rain pelting the window of the door as I waited for Titi Rocky to text me. She offered to drive me home after school that day because Victoria was staying late for string ensemble and my mom wouldn't be out of work in time.

When my aunt texted me to say she was in the parking lot, I swung my backpack on, picked up my flute and bolted out the door. I only tripped over my too-long, bright pink shoelaces once. I'd put the pink shoelaces on for breast cancer awareness when October started. I was soaked to the skin when I collapsed in the passenger seat of my aunt's car.

"Hi!" I smiled cheerily at my aunt. She chuckled.

"Hey, sweetie. Got any homework today?" Titi Rocky asked.

"Yeah. I've got some Geometry problems to do and I need to finish an essay for AP Euro." I replied. Titi Rocky nodded and we started off.

There wasn't as much traffic as we expected and it was 1:45 when we pulled up to my house. I dug my keys out of my backpack, said good-bye and thank you to my aunt, and sprinted to my house in an attempt to not get even more soaked.

Once inside, I went up to my room and kicked off my sneakers. My math homework didn't take me too long (it was only four questions and for once I understood what we had been doing), but DBQ essays for AP Euro are long, involved and quite frankly, pains in the ass. I just finished the essay when my brother and my mom walked in at 3:30 or so.

"The bus got stuck and the streetlight on Newbridge and seventh was out." Ryan answered when mom and I asked why he was home later than usual. I winced. _Blech. Newbridge and seventh is a major intersection. That's got to suck. _I thought.

Ryan sat down to do his homework, Mom went to change out of her work clothes and I went into the kitchen. I was hungry and we had crackers and some of the smoked garlic cheese our friends had brought back from the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival.

After my snack, I went back up to my room to check my email. There was some spam mail from the local bowling alley (I'd entered a contest over the summer and they'd started sending me spam mail when it was over) and an email from Kaoru.

'Thanks for understanding! Is it really? I never knew. Why don't you get along with your cousins? Softball and volleyball, huh? I assume you've got a pretty good arm. I had a feeling they were. Do you have your own bow too? That's cool! Tell me when your junior black belt test is! I think I know a couple of Bon Jovi songs. Lots of the girls at school listen to Taylor Swift, so I know who she is. I'll have to look up the other bands…so what's up?' I laughed a little bit reading the email.

'It's fine. Yes Kaoru, New York City isn't quite all it's cracked up to be. And the traffic really bites! The one particular cousin I don't get along with is…very different from me. I don't really fit in with the popular kids at school, but unlike my cousin I'm okay with it. I like being the 'nerd'. My cousin is always trying to get in with the popular crowd and she acts like a total bitch sometimes to do it. There's also a bunch of other reasons, but high school social standing and popularity contests have a lot to do with it. Yeah, I guess I have a pretty good arm for things like that. No, I don't actually have my own archery equipment yet. I've been trying to convince my mom to get me my own equipment for months. Months I say! I don't know if or when the junior black belt test is going to be, but when I know, I'll tell you. Okay?' I responded.

**Author's Note: Woo! Kaoru's POV! What did you guys think of that? I'm still trying to get used to writing the Host Club's characters. They really are complex and pretty diverse; so I'm going to enjoy it, even if it is a little hard at first. And yeah…Don't you love it when your ninth period class gets cancelled and you can go home early? READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! **


	5. Chapter 5

A Completely New and Supposedly Educational Experience

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club or anything else that I reference! I only own my OCs! **

Chapter Five

Eva's POV

I sighed as I sat down to lunch on Friday afternoon. Fon was absent that day and it was one of the days where neither Naveera nor Moiz would have lunch. Gianna was typically late, so I sat by myself until she came.

"Eva?" Someone asked behind me. I froze. _Oh good grief. _I thought.

"Victoria? I didn't know you had this lunch period." I pointed out.

"I don't usually. But my class this period was cancelled, so I decided to come here and hang out with you." My cousin answered, sitting down in the seat next to me (without even asking if I was expecting anyone else).

"Oh." I commented.

"Wow. You're even more of a loner than I thought if you sit here by yourself every day." Victoria commented. I clenched my jaw.

"I'm actually waiting for Gianna Adams. She's usually late so…" I trailed off when my cousin raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. I rolled my eyes internally and took a bigger-than-necessary bite out of my sandwich.

"Hey Eva!" Gianna called when she got there about five minutes late. I waved to her and mouthed 'Save me!' as she sat down.

"Hi Gianna! I'm Victoria. I'm Eva's cousin." Victoria introduced herself.

"I know. We've met once or twice before." Gianna replied, glancing at me as if to ask 'What's going on here?'

"My class was cancelled so I'm eating with you guys today." Victoria responded.

"Oh. Okay." Gianna stated, unwrapping her lunch.

"Are you ready for the AP Euro test today?" I asked a few minutes later.

"Pffft. No. Do you want to help me study?" Gianna asked. I nodded and furiously started going through my notes on the Protestant Reformation, which was the topic and time period we were being tested on that day.

Gianna came around the table and pulled up a chair. We began to go through our combined notes and clarify everything we were iffy about. My cousin came and went, randomly going over to what Gianna and I referred to as the 'Jackass Table' which, as one might guess, was where all the brain-dead people we couldn't stand hung out.

"Hey. You didn't tell me James had this lunch period." Victoria pointed out when she came back.

"You didn't ask." I told her, pushing back some fly-aways that refused to stay in the ponytail I'd pulled my hair into.

"Yeah. But he's my friend so you could've told me." She continued.

I glanced at Gianna out of the corner of my eye. Gianna gave me a look that said 'Don't chew her out too badly.' This once again reminded me that, of the two of us, Gianna had _a little _more tolerance for idiots. All in all, that didn't mean much; neither of us had any significant amount of patience for the morons at our school.

"Why? I thought you came here to hang out with me." I replied. Not that I was complaining that Victoria was leaving me to last-minute-cram in peace, but she was contradicting herself.

"Well. Someone's PMS-ing. You don't need to be all pissy at me." Victoria replied. Gianna looked up from the notes on Urich Zwingli to give my cousin an incredulous look.

"I'm not PMS-ing, I'm just…annoyed." I told her.

"Well you don't need to take it out on me! It's not _my _fault you're not ready for your Euro test." Victoria replied, gesturing to the notes Gianna and I still had sprawled over the lunch table.

I blinked owlishly at her. _How does my being paranoid over an AP level test relate to the fact that I didn't tell you that your dumbass friends have the same lunch period as me? _I wondered.

I wanted to tell her off, just once. I would have too, had anyone else said that to me. But Victoria was my cousin and if we fought in school it would cause family problems. She liked to think she was the grand master of sarcasm, which she wasn't. She could (sort of) dish it out, but she couldn't take it when the roles were reversed. And besides, she didn't even use the funny kind of sarcasm like the rest of our family usually did. She was outright mean and pretty obnoxious about it.

_No. _I told myself. _If you tell her off, she'll go whining back to Titi Rocky and you'll be the one to get in trouble. Just like __every other__ time you two have fought. _I narrowed my eyes, having no response to Victoria's ridiculous accusation.

Smirking smugly, thinking she had won, Victoria gathered up her stuff and walked over to the 'Jackass Table'. I took a deep breath and turned back to Gianna. She handed me the notes she'd copied from me because she'd missed the previous days' test review due to a music lesson. Gianna was in the school's chorus.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Not really. But now's not the time to bitch about my cousin." I replied.

"Hmm. You're still coming home with me today right?" Gianna asked. I smirked slightly.

"Yeah. We're taking your bus home and hanging out because it's one of those rare weekends when no one gives us homework." I replied.

"Good. You know, if you want to talk about this, I'm always here." Gianna told me. I smiled.

"I know. And _you_ know that when _you _need to talk about all the dumbasses here, I'm here for you. Right?" I responded, in all seriousness.

"Yeah. I know." Gianna smiled.

"Good. Now, tell me about Henry VIII." I replied. Gianna laughed and proceeded to talk all about Henry VIII and his six wives, a subject she needed help with due to her being out with a sinus infection when we covered it.

~~~~~meep~~~~~meep~~~~~meep~~~~~

After school, Gianna and I took Gianna's bus to her house. Once there, we vented about people (my cousin and her moronic friends specifically), spent a more-than-healthy amount of time on deviantART, and watched 'The Matrix'.

"Hey. Do you have plans for Halloween?" I asked at one point.

"Yeah. I think I have plans that day. Do you want to hang out that weekend though?" Gianna answered.

"Damn! I was going to ask if you'd want to be Loki." I mock-pouted.

"Why would I do that?" Gianna asked, laughing slightly at my face.

"Because the group of friends I'm going out with that day has a sort of Avengers theme going. Nick's being Iron Man, my brother's being Captain America and both of them asked me to be Thor. So I'm being Thor and I was going to ask if you'd come with us as Loki." I explained. We both started laughing.

"If I didn't have plans I'd do it. If only to see your brother actually dress like Captain America…He doesn't look like Steve Rogers at all." Gianna stated.

"I know. He looks more like Tony Stark." I commented.

"He does. But dude, you're going to be an awesome Thor. I want pictures." Gianna said, grinning.

"Oh absolutely!" I replied, grinning back.

A while later, my mom came to get me. By this time it was about 6:30. I unpacked all my school stuff when I got home and checked my email. There was a new one in my inbox from Kaoru.

'I hope you know that I actually did go to that news website you told me about. They had videos up from your Columbus Day Parade. But I don't know what you look like, so I don't know if you were on camera a lot. Maybe you'll tell me so I can find you? But anyway, you guys were great! How are you though? What's going on with that whole pain-in-the-ass cousin thing? I really hope I don't seem nosy, but you're my friend now and I want to know if you're upset about anything. Okay? Also, there's been an idea in my head for a while…Do you think the school would be opposed to us Face-Timing?'

I laughed reading the first part of the email. I had marched with the band in my first Columbus Day Parade on Monday. I told Kaoru to Google the local news station that would be covering it. Apparently he actually had. Kaoru and I had become close-ish over the last month or so and we talked about a lot of stuff in our lives.

'You seriously did that? Cool! Ha! I don't know if the flute section was on TV…But I have dirty blonde hair and green eyes. When I was at the parade my hair was all pulled back in a really cool looking braid that went to the middle of my back. I was on the end of my row and I was a few rows from the back. The parade was a lot of fun to do. Even if there was some camera guy with a camera in my face while I was trying to play! I hate paparazzi. I'm pretty good, thanks. How are you doing? My cousins are…Hmm. They're still pains in the ass. Victoria's sister, Danielle, is in my brother's grade, and they have four classes together. They were playing soccer at lunch, and both of them went for the ball at the same time and ended up collapsing on each other. Ryan landed on Danielle's ankle and now it's sprained. It really sucks because Danielle plays on two soccer teams and now since she can't even walk on her left foot, she'll have to sit out the next few games. Victoria, as per usual, is being a bitch. Sometimes I really want to tell her off, but knowing her she'd go whine and complain about it to her mom. And then it would cause family controversy and somehow I'd get in trouble for it. In case you can't tell, I usually get along much better with Danielle. The Face-Timing thing is actually a really good idea! Do you want me to ask my English teacher about it first? Anyway, how's everything going with the Host Club?'

I sent the email and spent some time thinking about the Face-Timing thing. _Why didn't I think of that? It's great! _I wondered. I put my iPod away and wandered downstairs to my living room.

I grabbed my sketchbook and continued a drawing I'd been working on for a while. My brother was reading a book series called 'Wolves of the Beyond' and had described to me a scene that inspired me to draw. The scene was one in which the moon and sun were in the sky at the same time and there were small red flowers in the grass. The drawing I was doing had half of the background as night, and half as day. It also included the grass and red flowers. In the foreground on the night side of the picture, was a white wolf howling at the moon; on the day side there was a black wolf howling at the sun. I worked on the drawing until dad came home and it was time for dinner.

**Author's Note: Yeah, I know. Short chapter. Sorry! I completely lost the train of thought so I had to go with this. The idea of Face-Timing is note mine, but Hellosweetie4737's! I'm just using it because she said I could and I liked the idea when she suggested it. That'll probably be in the next chapter…READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! **


	6. Chapter 6

A Completely New and Supposedly Educational Experience

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club or anything else that I reference! I only own my OCs! **

Chapter Six

Eva's POV

I rubbed my shoulder and winced as I took my seat in English a few days later. I'm not quite sure what I did, but I'd woken up that morning and my shoulder had hurt like a bitch. Advil hadn't helped and the pain wasn't subsiding. I pulled another face and dug out my English book.

"Hey everyone! You all remember how I said we'd have random days to talk about our pen-pals and whatnot, right?" Mr. Aberman asked when he showed up. Everyone nodded and mumbled. "Good! Today's one of those days. Who wants to start?" he continued.

"I have a question." I said softly, half-heartedly raising my hand.

Everyone turned and stared. Mr. Aberman's face looked like he was thinking something along the lines of 'Holy shit!' I suppose that's what happens when one _never _speaks in class.

"So that's what your voice sounds like." Someone commented.

"What's your question Eva?" Mr. Abernam asked.

"Well. I was wondering if we were allowed to Face-Time our pen-pals via iPod. Kaoru asked a few days ago, and I kinda forgot until now." I stated.

"I don't see why not. Go ahead! Did everyone hear that? You can Face-Time your pen-pals if you want." Mr. Aberman addressed the class.

"Thanks." I replied, ready to continue blending into the wall like I usually did.

"No. You're not getting off that easy. What's you pen-pal like?" Mr. Aberman asked.

"With all due respect, Mr. Aberman…How long exactly have you been waiting for me to say something so you could do this?" I asked, knowing Mr. Aberman had a sense of humor.

"The whole freakin' year." He shrugged, laughing slightly. I rolled my eyes.

"Wow. Not only do you talk, but you're sarcastic too?! WTF?" someone else added. I resisted the urge to face-palm. _Could they get any ruder? Or would that be more rude? _I wondered.

"Anyway! My pen-pal's name is Kaoru Hitachiin. He's pretty nice and he's funny too. We get along pretty well. We talk about after school sports, music and what it's like where he lives vs. here. I had him look up the videos of the marching band from Columbus Day when he asked what I did." I explained.

Mr. Aberman seemed satisfied with my answer and moved on. He tried to get all the shy, quiet kids to speak up, as per usual. Rosie talked about Hikaru and how they talked about things similar to what I did with Kaoru. Though, she conveniently left out his last name so we wouldn't have to explain that they were twins. That would _not _have gone over well. They'd have packs of screaming fangirls faster than they could blink.

"Read chapter two of Lord of the Flies for tomorrow!" Mr. Aberman shouted as the bell rang.

_Already read it._ I thought. I'd figured the second chapter of the book would be homework, so I'd read it after my Earth Science test earlier that day. It worked in my favor seeing as it meant I had no homework today.

"So what's up?" Rosie asked once class was over.

"Not much. What's up with you? How's the 'Alice in Wonderland' themed Tri-M thing going?" I asked.

Rosie was involved in a sort of music honors society, and they were hosting a Halloween party for the local children's hospital for kids with terminal illnesses. They'd chosen an 'Alice in Wonderland' theme for the gig and everyone was dressing up.

"It's great! I've got everything planned out. There's going to be posters, and costumes and all sorts of stuff. I'm going to be the Cheshire Cat!" Rosie replied, grinning a grin that could be compared to the aforementioned feline.

"Nice! Tori told me she's going to be the Hookah Caterpillar." I commented.

"Yeah. I thought it would be a good fit seeing as your cousin acts like she's high even without the use of drugs." Rosie stated. I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you're not wrong. But jeez that's foul…" I trailed off, laughing.

"I know!" Rosie joined in my laughter. "I-I should go. See ya!" Rosie called to me, still laughing, as she ran down the hall and made a left.

I smirked and rolled my eyes. I turned down the hallway to the band wing and went out the door at the end of that hallway. This door led out into the courtyard near the parking lot; the one with the dogwood tree that I loved. I smiled to myself and hurried out to the parking lot where my dad was waiting.

"Hey dad! Remember that comment you made about Lord of the Flies and the Lost Boys in Once Upon A Time when they were goofing off and dancing around the fire?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?" Dad asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I get it now." I stated, laughing a little. Dad laughed.

"I told ya." He replied.

"That's all I could think about when I was reading that part of the book." I added.

"I take it that was tonight's homework." Dad commented.

"Yeah. I get the feeling someone's going to be bringing it up tomorrow. I'm not sure if it's going to be Madison, Brandon or Mr. Aberman though. But we were talking about the conch today and someone immediately went 'The magic conch shell!' You know, like that one episode of SpongeBob?" I said, laughing.

"Haha! Nice! What'd the teacher say?" Dad asked.

"He said he'd be showing that episode of SpongeBob, seeing as the whole thing is a convoluted reference to the book. Who knew SpongeBob, of all things, would be even slightly educational?" I responded. Dad laughed.

"Ah well. Things aren't always what they seem." Dad said.

"Yeah. But I actually get the whole Lost Boys thing now. I don't know if anyone else in my class watches the show, so they might not get it." I stated.

"Every Peter Pan movie has the Lost Boys dancing and horsing around by a fire at some point. So even if they've seen the Disney movie, they'll know." Dad told me. He then proceeded to grin evilly and crow three times like Peter Pan.

"I'll bet someone's going to do that too." I said between gasps for air as I tried to stop laughing. Dad laughed too after a minute.

When we got home, I sent a quick email to Kaoru, asking when he wanted to Face-Time and got to work. After nearly two hours of cursing, pulling my hair and muttering about crazy teachers with Napoleon Complexes, I went downstairs. In other words, I did AP European History homework.

"Hey mom! Hey Ryan! What's up?" I asked as I plopped on the couch.

"Nothing. How was school?" Mom asked. I pulled a face.

"Meh. It was alright. Nothing new and exciting. We talked about Mozart in AP Euro. We had a discussion about the difference between musical ability and musical talent. At one point the teacher asked if anyone in the room thought anyone else in the room had musical talent." I started.

"And?" Mom prompted. I smirked.

"Someone raised their hand and replied with 'Everyone in marching band has musical talent.' And this was one of the orchestra kids who hate us." I grinned. Mom laughed.

"Anything else?" Mom responded.

"No. Not really. We talked about our pen-pals in English today. Mr. Aberman singled me out." I shrugged.

"Nice. He just wants you to participate in class Eva. Don't sound so grumpy about it." Mom commented.

_Why do moms have all the answers? _I wondered. I shrugged and gave a noncommittal noise. Mom rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer to pay bills and stuff. I buried my nose in Rick Riordan's 'Mark of Athena'. I hadn't had time to read it when it came out last year, and now both my parents were reading 'House of Hades' which was the latest in the series.

My brother had a religious education class that day, so I had the other computer to myself. I typed up part of a paper for English and checked my email afterwards. There was one from Kaoru.

'Your teacher said we could Face-Time?! That's cool! I don't know what times would work, the 13 hour difference considered, but I think weekends would be okay. Everything's going great with the Host Club, by the way. How's all your stuff going? You seem like you do a lot of stuff. I don't know how you pull it all off.'

'Yeah! Weekends would work great. What are you doing on…I'm pretty sure it would be Saturday morning for you. But it's my Friday night so…yeah. I could Face-Time you at like 8:30 on my Friday night and it would be about 9:30 Saturday morning. How does that sound? I don't do a ton of stuff, but I like what I do. I don't think you can really ask for more than that. It's all going great! But there's some stupid teenage drama going on in my life right now. With a twist, because nothing can ever be normal where I'm involved. My cousin and my best guy friend are dating. It's really, really weird. And they both talk to me about it and it's awkward for me. My guy friend is named Tony and we went to the same middle school, but when we got to high school he started going to catholic school. And I've been stuck with my cousin as far as I can remember. My best friend Gianna is going through it too. She told me that Tony called her the other day to talk about how awesome he thinks my cousin is. And Gianna shares my view on the fact that my cousin is a bitch. It's such a weird situation…Anyway, I guess I'll see you soon!' I replied.

I felt like I had to tell someone about the twisted teenage drama in my life. It was just so strange. Besides, I felt like I could talk to Kaoru about these things. He was a good listener, I thought. Even if he didn't quite understand what I was talking about, he tried to understand my take on things and he tried to help me feel better. I was really grateful for it. I didn't have a ton of friends, but I was really close with the ones I had. I considered Kaoru a close friend.

~~~~~meep~~~~~meep~~~~~meep~~~~~

Friday night came all too fast. After dinner, I ran a brush through my hair and re-did the braids I'd put in the front to keep it out of my way. At 8:30, I turned on my iPod, went to the Face-Time app and clicked the contact I'd made for Kaoru.

The screen remained blank for a minute, before someone picked up. I blinked a few times and looked curiously at the auburn haired teenager with amber eyes who had picked up. _He's…really cute, actually. _I thought, blushing.

"Hi. Are-Are you Kaoru?" I asked, mentally wincing as I stuttered.

"Yeah. I'm Kaoru. You're Eva, right?" he asked in return. I nodded. His voice was kinda high pitched.

"Well hey there! I'm really sorry I haven't gotten back to your email. I haven't checked in a few days. So what's up? Also, I really am curious as to how you do so much stuff after school." Kaoru stated, smiling. _Wow. Scratch that 'cute' thing, he's really good-looking. _I thought. 

"It's alright. I don't really do a lot when you think about it. There are a lot of people who do more than I do. And the stuff I do, I really like. So there's that." I replied. Kaoru furrowed his eyebrows and looked at me.

"Hey. Are you okay? It seems like something's wrong…" Kaoru told me.

"Don't worry Kaoru! She just didn't expect you to be so devilishly handsome, that's all!" Another, slightly lower-pitched voice, called in the background. I raised an eyebrow and I'm pretty sure I blushed.

"Hikaru! You're embarrassing her!" Kaoru laughed. Evidently, I'd blushed.

"Ah! So that's your brother." I mused.

"Yeah. But seriously, is everything okay?" Kaoru became serious again.

"Not really. Twisted teenage drama." I muttered.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Kaoru asked.

"Sure, might as well. My best guy friend, Tony, started dating my cousin, Victoria. I feel really awkward about the whole thing. So does my friend Gianna. But I don't know what to do about it. You see, Tony goes to archery with me and we went to middle school together. So we're good friends. And my cousin…well, you know about my love-hate relationship with her. And I just feel so awkward; so sandwiched between them. They both talk to me about their dates and stuff. And Tony talks to Gianna about it and we both just stand there and go 'WTF?' Granted; teasing Victoria relentlessly is fun but…." I trailed off.

"Well, that certainly sounds awkward. I'm not sure what you should do other than tell them 'Hey, could you not be all love-y dove-y around me, it's weird.' I don't have any cousins that I see often so I don't quite understand that aspect. But I guess people could get really annoying when you see them a lot. I don't really see my family a lot, aside from Hikaru." Kaoru muttered the last part.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh, my parents just work a lot and they aren't home too much." Kaoru said offhandedly.

"Sometimes my parents work a lot too. Ryan and I are home alone some days after school. But mom's usually home for dinner and we all eat together most nights. We're a pretty close-knit family in that respect. I get along with my Titi Robin and my youngest cousin pretty well. My grandpa's pretty cool but he's really biased and in his eyes, none of the grandkids can do any wrong." I stated.

"It sounds really nice; the part about eating dinner as a family and everything." Kaoru told me. To me, it sounded like Kaoru wanted something like that with his family. There was a little bit of longing in his voice. I felt bad for bringing the subject up.

"Usually it is…Hey, did you know about the field trip in June?" I asked randomly.

"What field trip?" Kaoru asked, suddenly interested.

"According to my teacher, there's going to be a field trip in June. Ouran's supposedly flying my entire school to Japan so we can all meet and hang out and stuff." I explained.

"Yeah…I think my English teacher mentioned something like that when we started doing this whole pen-pal thing. I wasn't really paying attention." Kaoru replied, almost sheepishly.

"Nice. It's going to be so much fun though, right?" I responded.

"Definitely. Maybe Hikaru and I will convince the Host Club to have some sort of dance or event while you're here." Kaoru smirked. I laughed.

"You don't have to do that. Besides, I'm pretty sure our schools will work something out." I said.

"Ooh. But now I want to." Kaoru pouted a little. I rolled my eyes a little.

"Alright, alright." I replied. Kaoru grinned mischievously. _Oh no. What have I gotten myself into?! _I thought.

Kaoru and I talked for a while longer. Eventually Kaoru told me he had to go because the host Club needed to plan for an upcoming event that day. He joked that I should go to sleep because my yawning was contagious and he needed to be awake to focus on the party planning. I made a face at him and we both laughed before he hung up.

**Author's Note: And there you have it folks; twisted teenage drama and outside-the-box comparisons to Lord of the Flies. Happy Halloween! READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! **


	7. Chapter 7

A Completely New and Supposedly Educational Experience

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club or anything else that I reference! I only own my OCs!**

Chapter Seven

Kaoru's POV

The Host Club had finished planning for the party the Boss wanted to throw a while ago. Now we were all just sitting in the music room, bored. Honey-Sempai was eating cake, Kyoya-Sempai was writing something in that mysterious black notebook of his, and Haruhi was reading.

"Hey Kao-chan, didn't you Face-Time with your pen-pal this morning?" Honey-Sempai asked eventually. Kyoya-Sempai looked up from his notebook, mildly interested.

"Yeah. I did." I replied.

"Was it fun? What's your pen-pal like? Do they like cake? Isn't there a field trip at the end of the year or something?" Honey-Sempai asked.

"I'm pretty sure everyone from the American school is coming here at the end of the year." Hikaru commented.

"Yeah. Eva mentioned something about a field trip." I added.

"A field trip you say? We must have a party of some sort for our American guests when they arrive." Tamaki-Sempai spoke up.

"We were actually going to ask about that, Boss. Kaoru and I were wondering if we could have some sort of event while the Americans are here." Hikaru stated. I'd told him about my plan on the way to the school.

"Of course! We must! As members of Ouran's Host Club, it is our job to make every girl at this school happy! Even if they're visiting from the other side of the world!" Tamaki-Sempai exclaimed.

"This makes me wonder how the American girls would react to a club like ours. What if they don't do this sort of thing in American public schools?" Haruhi asked. Kyoya-Sempai scribbled something in his book.

"I think it would be fun! Don't you agree, Takashi?" Honey-Sempai piped up. Mori-Sempai 'Hmm'ed in response. "You didn't answer my other questions Kao-chan! What's Eva-chan like? Does she like cake? Is she going to come on the field trip?" Honey-Sempai asked again.

"The Face-Time was pretty fun. Eva's nice and she's really witty. We laughed a lot. She's pretty sensible and observant I guess; she reminds me a little bit of you, Haruhi. She seemed kinda shy though, I'm not sure why." I stated. Haruhi looked up at the sound of her name and gave me a curious look. Kyoya-Sempai wrote something down in his notebook.

"I already told you Kaoru, your poor pen-pal was shocked by your devilishly handsome-ness." Hikaru commented.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure she's going on the trip, because she mentioned it. I don't know if she likes cake, I'll ask when I email her next. How does that sound Honey-Sempai?" I continued.

"Great!" Honey-Sempai smiled brightly.

"So what are your pen-pals like?" Haruhi asked in general.

"Well, my pen-pal Rosie and Kaoru's pen-pal are friends. I still think that's really weird." Hikaru replied.

"But if they're all in the same school, wouldn't it make sense for them to know each other?" Haruhi pointed out. Hikaru shifted slightly next to me. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, and I could tell that he was annoyed.

"I know, but still!" he responded. "Hey did you know that Rosie's on YouTube? She's got videos of song covers she does with her sister and sometimes with Eva." Hikaru changed the subject.

"Really? I didn't know." I commented.

"Yeah. Rosie and her sister are in the theater groups and whatnot. She tells me Eva has a really nice voice but her self-confidence tanks when she tries to sing in public." Hikaru explained. I nodded, a little upset that my friend would have low self-confidence.

"Ah the theater! Won't you show us some of these videos, Hikaru?" the Boss asked dramatically.

"Kyoya-Sempai, can I use your laptop?" Hikaru asked, smiling mischievously.

Kyoya-Sempai sighed and handed over the laptop. Hikaru quickly sent into the search bar and within seconds we were on YouTube. He typed in the name of Rosie's YouTube account.

"Uh…They've got a lot of songs up. Which one do you want to hear first, Boss?" Hikaru asked. By this point, everyone had crowded on the couch Hikaru and I were sitting on to get a better view of the laptop screen.

"This one's got Eva on the thumbnail." I stated, pointing to one of the videos on the list.

"The song's called 'How to save a Life' by The Fray. Never heard of it. Has anyone?" Hikaru commented.

I shook my head. No one answered and Hikaru clicked the video. The background looked like the living room of someone's house. There was a grand piano on the screen with a girl with short blonde curls and brown eyes sitting on it. Another girl, who looked similar to the first, sat on a chair nearby. She had wavy brown hair and golden-brown eyes and she wore glasses. Eva sat on a chair next to her.

"Which one's Rosie?" I asked Hikaru before we started the video.

"This one, with the brown hair and glasses, is Rosie. She told me in an email what she looks like. Her sister, Hannah is the blonde one at the piano." Hikaru told everyone.

"So I assume the young lady with the wavy-curly sandy blonde hair and dark green eyes is Eva, correct?" Kyoya-Sempai asked.

"Yeah. That's Eva." I answered, staring at her on the screen. _She's beautiful, now that I think about it…._I thought.

"Eva-chan's pretty!" Honey-Sempai stated. After another moment, Hikaru started the video.

"Hello internet! As usual, I'm here with my older sister Hannah. Say 'Hi' to the people Hannah." Rosie stated as the video opened.

"Hello internet creeps." The blonde piano girl said, waving.

"Right. We've also got my best friend Eva here today. I heard her singing the other day and I went 'Hey you want to sing on YouTube with me and Hannah?'" Rosie continued.

"For some reason that remains a mystery even to me, I said yes." Eva commented.

"It's because I'm her best friend and I annoyed her until she caved. Anyway, we're doing a cover of 'How to Save a Life' by The Fray today. Eva's singing most of it because damn it this girl can sing! Hannah and I will sing the chorus." Rosie finished, shaking Eva's shoulders slightly. Eva laughed and Hannah started playing.

"Step one, you say, we need to talk.  
He walks, you say, sit down, it's just a talk.  
He smiles politely back at you; you stare politely right on through.

Some sort of window to your right, as he goes left and you stay right.  
Between the lines of fear and blame, you begin to wonder why you came.

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness.  
And I would have stayed up with you all night, dad I known how to save a life.

Let him know that you know best, 'cause after all, you do know best.  
Try to slip past his defense, without granting innocence.

Lay down a list of what is wrong; the things you've told him all along.  
And pray to God he hears you, and pray to God he hears you.

And where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness.  
And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life.

As he begins to raise his voice, you lower yours and grant him one last choice; drive until you lose the road, or break with the ones you've followed.

He will do one of two things; he will admit to everything or he'll say he's just not the same. And you'll begin to wonder why you came.

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life.

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness.  
And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life.

How to save a life.  
How to save a life.

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness.  
And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life.

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness.  
And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life.

How to save a life.  
How to save a life."

All three girls had tears running down their cheeks by the time the song was over. Eva's voice was a little shaky and she broke of the last note with a sniffle. She mumbled something to Rosie and Hannah got up from the piano and cut off the video.

"That was beautiful! Such emotion, such sorrow! I have to find out what happened to make these poor girls associate such sadness with this song!" The boss wailed.

Everyone was silent. After a moment, Hikaru clicked on one of the other videos with Eva in it and we listened to them for a while. All three of them had really nice voices, even if Rosie was right and Eva seemed to lack self-confidence when she sang.

On the way home once we finished, I couldn't stop thinking about that first song we'd listened to. _Why was Eva crying? What happened? I'll ask her in an email…I just hope she won't get upset. _I wondered.

"Hey Hikaru?" I asked.

"What's up, Kaoru?" Hikaru responded.

"Do you know why Eva, Rosie and Hannah were crying at the end of that first video?" I asked. Hikaru shook his head.

"I don't know. But there's something about it that bugs me. Rosie's a good friend to me. She listens to me; most of the time she agrees with me. And when I get pissed about something, she tries to help. Something about her being so upset bugs me." Hikaru told me, stumbling over his words a bit.

I nodded in understanding. Sometimes, it was hard for him to show that he cared. Hikaru and I were so attached to each other, that we didn't really know how to communicate with others all that well. I tried to learn, and I guess I can say I figured out how to read people pretty well from always trying to gauge Hikaru's emotions. But it was still pretty hard for Hikaru sometimes. I knew he considered Rosie a friend, and both of us were very protective of the few true friends that we had.

**Author's Note: So, this is what happens when the author has a bad week…Angst. And mini-character studies of (arguably) the two most complex characters in the anime. There is in fact a story behind that song for Eva, Rosie and Hannah, but that's a story for the next chapter. Until then, you'll all have to settle for being just as curious and confused as the twins. **


End file.
